Cards

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Breaking Down a Baseball Card Trade

My last post set me at two milestones: it was my 50th post and it put me over 2,000 views. I know, that's small potatoes compared to most blogs out there, but when I started this blog in January, I never thought I'd have 50 posts before the year was out. As for the page views, thanks to all of you who read my drivel.

Why don't we commemorate the occasion with a trade from Baseball Card Breakdown? First, Gavin sent me all the cards seen above, a good mix of PC players and Cubs, including some good Mark Prior, who is sorely lacking in my collection.

We'll start with Weeghman Park, where the Cubs will try to clinch a World Series berth tonight. Okay,it's not Weeghman Park anymore, but it was when the Cubs played there during the last World Series they won. What's that you say? The Cubs didn't play at Wrigley, nee Weeghman when they last won the Series? But it opened 102 years ago! *Sigh* Go Cubs!

Love this pic of Arrieta. Here we have the reigning Cy Young winner looking like a rookie who has to fetch water for the vets. And how cool is batting practice for a pitcher? One reason I'm an NL fan.

As much as I love the Arrieta pic, what is up with this Ryne Sandberg Archives? I'm not even sure his eyes are pointing the same direction. That Pinnacle in the bottom left photographed nicely. All in all, Gavin sent me some great looking 90s Rynos that I didn't have before.

Mark Grace is my all-time favorite Cub. I love all of these cards. Gold Label is a brand I missed in the late 90s. I love the Wrigley inserts. And even the ugly 1991 Fleer is good news for me. I have this same card with a TTM auto on it, but this one will go in my binder. And that Bowman International. Who doesn't love a good American flag on their cards? USA! USA! USA!

Here is an interesting card. I'm sure Gavin sent it because of Derrek Lee, who is another of my all-time favorite Cubs. But as I looked at the back, I noticed that Ron Wright is from Delta, Utah. Since I know some people from Delta, I decided to check out Mr. Wright's career. Here is what I found. Ron Wright is a cup of coffee player, appearing in only one Major League game in his career. That one appearance, with Seattle, was nothing short of disastrous. In three at-bats, he accounted for six outs. In his lone MLB game, Wright struck out, grounded into a double play, and hit into a triple play. That's it. Ten years in the minors, one game, three at bats, six outs in the Majors. And now his picture is in my collection. This is why I collect; I love to own a piece of the history of sports.

I love these BCB Customs. That Kris Bryant faux 1989 Upper Deck is the crown jewel of this trade, in my opinion. All of these customs are of my primary PC guys. Awesome!

And let's not forget the Packers. As a kid, I got the 1990 Score factory set for Christmas one year. This is the first I've seen of the Supplemental set from the same year. I want to know where the black border was for the rest of the set? These two cards look better than just about any of the rest of the set with different colored borders. Cool side note: from the back of these cards I learned that Tony Bennett hails from Alligator, Mississippi. Who knew?